The best sales courses and classes help people learn and improve their selling techniques, sales processes, and ability to foster a satisfying customer experience. Whether it’s learning how to prospect, how to navigate customer resistance, or the art of closing deals, the ultimate goal of taking a sales course is to improve bottom-line results.
But with so many options to choose from, finding the best online sales courses can be daunting. We’ve rounded up some of the best online sales courses at a variety of price points and delivery methods to help you find the right course for you.
What Is Sales?
Sales refers to all activities involved in the selling of products and services to consumers. In practice, however, sales involves so much more. It is about sourcing prospects, finding out their problems, building relationships with them, and providing them with solutions. These efforts often lead to a sale, a satisfied customer, and, consequently, money for the company.
Why Online Sales Courses Are Important for Professional Development
Whether you’re just starting out in sales, or are a veteran sales professional, online sales courses can help you to learn up-to-date skills in different areas of sales expertise and advance your career. As the direct link between the customer and the company, sales professionals must constantly hone their hard sales skills as well as soft skills to ensure business growth and to maintain good relations with the customer.
Within companies, the use of an online sales course or an online sales training program can push consistent selling practices throughout the sales department to strengthen the sales approach and grow the business. It also improves sales team knowledge, productivity, and overall skills. Since the training is done online, or through virtual coaching, the company can automate the training process, minimize time away from work, and reduce training costs.
Should You Attend a Coding Bootcamp to Learn Sales?
In short, no. While coding bootcamps and tech sales bootcamps have a lot in common regarding job placement and application requirements, they differ a lot in terms of their curricula. Essentially, coding bootcamps teach you how to build software, while tech sales bootcamps teach you how to sell the software. You do not need to learn coding to sell software.
If you want to become a tech sales representative, you should attend a tech sales bootcamp. However, if you plan on transitioning to developing software, then attending a coding bootcamp will come in handy.
Overview: The Best Online Sales Courses, Classes, or Training
While sales reps can still function well enough without taking sales courses and training, a few hours of continuous learning can make a huge difference in sales performance and career advancement. These courses can also boost your CV tremendously if you are applying for a new role or seeking a promotion.
When looking for the best online sales courses and training, choose reputable course providers who offer trusted and reliable information at a good price point. The course should also be flexible enough not to disrupt your working schedule.
| Provider | Course | Price | Length | Certificate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aspireship | SaaS Sales Foundations | Free | 20 Hours | Yes |
| CourseCareers | Tech Sales | $499 | 1-3 Months | Yes |
| Coursera | The Art of Sales: Mastering the Selling Process | $49 Per Month | 4 Months | Yes |
| Coursera | Successful Negotiation: Essential Strategies and Skills | $49 Per Month | 17 Hours | Yes |
| Coursera | Sales Training for High Performing Teams | $49 Per Month | 3 Months | Yes |
| Elevate Hire | SDR Tech Sales | $15,000 | 10 Weeks | Yes |
| Flockjay | Tech Sales Bootcamp | $7,650 | 10 Weeks | Yes |
| Kellogg Executive Education | Kellogg Sales School: Professional Certificate in Sales | $6,500 | 5 Months | Yes |
| LinkedIn Learning | Free Sales Training Courses | $20 – $30 Per Month | Self-Paced | Yes |
| Prehired | Tech Sales Bootcamp | $30,000 | 12 Weeks | Yes |
| Satellite | Tech Sales Bootcamp | Free | 8 Weeks | Yes |
| Skillshare | Modern Sales Training | $14 Per Month | Self-Paced | Yes |
| SV Academy | Tech Sales Program | $10,000 | 4 Weeks | Yes |
| Udemy | Sales Training: Practical Sales Techniques | $100 | 2 Hours | Yes |
| Uvaro | Tech Sales | $5,000 | 4 Weeks | Yes |
In Detail: The Best Online Sales Classes, Courses, or Training
SaaS Sales Foundations | Aspireship
- Learning Format: Self-paced course
- Level: Advanced
- Subjects Covered: Sales strategies, leadership, personal branding
Aspireship is a world-renowned reskilling and job placement platform designed to help you start a career in sales. Its flagship program, SaaS Sales Foundations, is the fastest and most effective route to a sales role. The 20-hour, self-paced course is designed to help you stand out from other applicants and land a role as a sales development representative or account executive.
Aspireship combines in-class learning and tactical experience with a one-of-a-kind process that helps you prove to your employers that you are ready for the job. The course content includes videos, assessments, video interviews, and job simulations. Once you pass the course, you enter the Aspireship Talent Network, gaining access to amazing hiring partners and peers in the sales industry.
The best part about this bootcamp is that it’s absolutely free, and you do not have to apply. Simply sign up at any time and start the training.
Key Takeaway: Aspireship’s SaaS Sales Foundations is for people who are trying to launch a career in tech sales and those aiming for a more senior position at a SaaS company.
Tech Sales | CourseCareers
- Learning Format: Self-paced course
- Level: Beginner
- Subjects Covered: Sales terminology, organizational structure, sales engagement
The CourseCareers online sales training course is the fastest and least expensive option to start a new career in tech sales, especially if you don’t have previous sales experience. The students in this program range from high school graduates to fully-fledged engineers looking to switch to tech sales.
This is a one-to-three-month self-paced program that teaches you everything you need to know about succeeding as a technology sales executive. This includes negotiating price, how to factor in business objectives while selling, and how to cater to your customer concerns so you meet their needs with your product or service.
Once you complete the course, CourseCareers connects you with a tech sales internship where you will make at least $7,000 on average. From there, it’s easy to land a sales job paying more, thanks to the work experience and connections you make during the course. The bootcamp is only $499, which means it will pay for itself quite fast once you start the internship.
Key Takeaway: If you are a high school graduate or college dropout wondering if technology sales is a good career, CourseCareers has a free introductory course that you can take before enrolling for the main course.
The Art of Sales: Mastering the Selling Process | Coursera
- Learning Format: Series of four self-paced courses
- Level: Beginner
- Subjects Covered: Customer segmentation and prospecting, connecting with sales prospects, sales pitches and closing, building your sales toolkit
The Art of Sales is one of the best online sales courses because it covers a broad range of topics that span the entire sales process. It is a four-month course offered by Northwestern University through Coursera, and it costs $49 per month after a seven-day free trial.
The Art of Sales consists of a group of sub-courses: Customer Segmentation, Connecting with Prospects, Sales Pitch and Closing, and Building a Toolkit for Your Selling Process. The course includes self-paced videos and readings, and you can test yourself along the way with practice quizzes and assignments.
Key Takeaway: The Art of Sales is an ideal program to learn the ABCs of sales and how to apply what you learn in real-world scenarios.
Successful Negotiation: Essential Strategies and Skills | Coursera
- Learning Format: Self-paced course
- Level: Beginner
- Subjects Covered: Negotiation, preparing contracts
Successful Negotiation is offered by Coursera in association with the University of Michigan. It is a 17-hour comprehensive program that teaches the four steps of successful negotiation. These include planning the negotiation strategy, creating a contract, evaluating the negotiation strategy, and using critical tactics for success.
Each section of the course is accompanied by graded assignments, practical exercises, and real-life examples to improve the learning experience. For taking and passing the course, you will earn a certificate of completion that you can show to prospective employers.
Key Takeaway: Successful Negotiation is the best course for sales managers and other professionals who want to grasp the art of selling and closing deals.
Sales Training for High Performing Teams | Coursera
- Learning Format: Series of four self-paced courses
- Level: Beginner, intermediate, or advanced
- Subjects Covered: Sales training, sales team management, inbound business strategy
Sales Training for High Performing Teams is a practical specialization course that will help accelerate your sales career. The program is created in conjunction with HubSpot, and students get to interact with HubSpot executives regularly via video conference calls. The three-month course will teach you every sales methodology you require for a successful career, including the inbound sales methodology often used by sales leaders.
Key Takeaway: This specialization contains four courses that can be completed in their entirety or as standalone courses, so you will find something for you whether you’re just starting out in your sales career or managing a company.
Sales Development Representative | Elevate Hire
- Learning Format: Part-time bootcamp program
- Level: Beginner
- Subjects Covered: CRM, prospecting, researching target accounts, cold calling, discovery calls
Elevate Hire has a 10-week, multi-tiered Sales Development Representative (SDR) program designed to kickstart your career in tech sales. Elevate SDR teaches key skills that help you become the most qualified candidate for an entry-level tech job in just ten weeks. It also leverages your core strengths and prepares you to become a successful sales development representative.
"Career Karma entered my life when I needed it most and quickly helped me match with a bootcamp. Two months after graduating, I found my dream job that aligned with my values and goals in life!"
Venus, Software Engineer at Rockbot
Students are trained and mentored by leading experts from LinkedIn, Google, Attentive, and Outreach. There is also a guarantee that you will land a well-paying SDR job in less than a year, and most members get employed within seven or eight weeks. The best part is that you don’t need any experience or even a degree to join Elevate Hire. All you need is the hunger to learn and be ready for a fast-paced learning environment.
Key Takeaway: Elevate Hire SDR bootcamp is for complete beginners looking to learn professional selling skills and enter the sales sector. The course will equip you with the critical selling skills you need and help you land a job in record time.
Tech Sales Bootcamp | Flockjay
- Learning Format: Part-time bootcamp program
- Level: Beginner
- Subjects Covered: Foundational sales techniques, software tools
Flockjay is an online tech sales bootcamp designed to get you job-ready in only ten weeks. The program teaches you everything a modern salesperson needs to break into tech sales, from foundational sales strategy to software tools to how to spot sales opportunities. In the first 10 weeks of the course, you will learn how to prospect and close sales, all while using software tools like Zoom, Outreach, LinkedIn, Salesforce, and Drift.
Flockjay conducts live video online classes every Monday through Thursday between 5pm and 8pm. Once you complete the first eight weeks of the course, the remaining two weeks are spent on good interview practices, resume preparation, and job placement. While this is not a free bootcamp, you have the option to defer tuition and pay it after completion.
Key Takeaway: Flockjay Tech Sales bootcamp is an excellent program for beginners struggling to break into the tech industry.
Kellogg Sales School: Professional Certificate in Sales | Kellogg Executive Education
- Learning Format: Part-time certificate program
- Level: Advanced
- Subjects Covered: Negotiating and closing, specializations in entrepreneurial sales, healthcare sales, technology sales
What if a bootcamp could teach you what the best of the best in sales wished they had known when they started their careers? That is exactly what you get when you join Kellogg Executive Education. When you join this bootcamp program, you get to learn from the same marketing thought leaders and industry practitioners who teach the MBA program.
Over the course of five months, you will learn the exact sales process that industry leaders like Brian Tracy use to close every deal. This includes techniques to improve sales conversations, customer relations, scaling, and conversion. Later in the course, you get a chance to specialize in either healthcare, tech, or entrepreneurial selling, all of which are high-growth areas.
Key Takeaway: Kellogg’s Professional Certificate in Sales is a complete course that takes you from a beginner to an expert in less than five months.
Sales Courses | LinkedIn Learning
- Learning Format: Online
- Level: Beginner, Intermediate, and advanced
- Subjects Covered: Sales methodologies, presentation ideas, and negotiation skills.
LinkedIn Learning offers a wide collection of online sales classes covering everything that will make you an effective sales professional. There are over 1,200 training sessions to help you explore sales methodologies, negotiation skills, and even presentation ideas.
If you are new to sales, there are beginner value-based sales training tutorials designed to help you build a solid foundation. With time, you can take the more advanced courses, which cover things like pipeline management, forecasting, and competitive differentiation.
Key Takeaway: This is a comprehensive collection of online sales classes, covering everything from persuasive selling and sales storytelling to closing strategies.
Tech Sales Bootcamp | Prehired
- Learning Format: Part-time bootcamp program
- Level: Advanced
- Subjects Covered: Science-based sales
Prehired is a lifetime membership program that begins with a 12-week science-based sales course. This is the only tech sales bootcamp endorsed by sales automation giant HubSpot, and it comes with a job guarantee. As a member of Prehired, you learn everything about sales, including sales-related software in various categories.
The bootcamp aims to equip learners with the skills they require to land a dream job as tech sales executives and reach a six-figure annual income fast. Training takes place through course videos, one-on-one mentoring via video calls, and hands-on projects. In addition, the program has a buzzing community of peers and mentors who will hold your hand to success and beyond.
Key Takeaway: Prehired is a community-based program that walks with you from the first day you sign up for the Tech Sales course all the way to success.
Tech Sales Bootcamp | Satellite
- Learning Format: Part-time bootcamp program
- Level: Beginner
- Subjects Covered: Cold calling and cold emailing, objection handling, sales tools
Satellite is an eight-week tech sales bootcamp whose aim is to provide skill-based training coupled with mentorship, apprenticeship, and job placement programs. In the online bootcamp, students will learn how to research potential customers, cold email, handle objections, and use sales tools. They also learn soft skills such as team collaboration and managing personal performance and growth.
All students participate in weekly sessions with sales leaders to learn more about the sales profession. Upon your completion of the course, Satellite guarantees warm introductions to partner companies that are actively hiring.
Key Takeaway: If you want a free tech sales program that will teach you all the basics of selling, and will connect you with hiring companies, Satellite is among the best.
Modern Sales Training | Skillshare
- Learning Format: Self-paced class
- Level: Intermediate
- Subjects Covered: Creating a sales list, prospecting, the proposal, objections, negotiating, and closing
There is no better introductory sales training course than Modern Sales Training. The course, taught by Derek Shebby, takes the guesswork out of the sales process. It has 12 lessons in total, which teach you everything you need to know about sales, from creating a sales list to prospecting and closing.
Key Takeaway: The course is offered on Skillshare, and you can take it for free once you activate your one-month free trial.
Tech Sales Program | SV Academy
- Learning Format: Full-time or part-time bootcamp program
- Level: Beginner
- Subjects Covered: Business intelligence, digital marketing, sales, Salesforce
SV Academy is a four-week full-time and 12-week part-time online business development bootcamp. The academy is on a mission to make it possible for people of all backgrounds to access the tech industry. Sixty percent of their learners are women, 42 percent are Black or Latinx, and 70 percent are first-generation college graduates.
SV Academy’s Tech Sales Program helps job seekers launch careers in this lucrative field without worrying about financial limitations. It balances live online classes and industry mentorship with real-life experiences in key facets of sales jobs. Upon completion, students are connected to employers to fast-track the hiring process. To learn more about the school, check out this SV Academy review.
Key Takeaway: SV Academy’s inclusive Tech Sales Program successfully helps Americans of all backgrounds break into the tech industry.
Sales Training: Practical Sales Techniques | Udemy
- Learning Format: Self-paced class
- Level: Beginner
- Subjects Covered: Planning, customer relationship building, object handling techniques, and closing deals
This two-hour online class teaches everything relevant to sales, from preparation to prospecting to relationship building to closing the deal. You will also learn about body language, customer loyalty, customer service, sales tools, and practical tricks and phrases that help close the deal.
The course has a total of 30 lectures and 11 downloadable resources available to you anytime. The sales training class is accompanied by plenty of quizzes, practical exercises, and readings to brush up on covered topics.
Key Takeaway: Sales Training is a short and valuable introduction to sales if you’re a complete beginner.
Tech Sales Training Course | Uvaro
- Learning Format: Part-time or full-time bootcamp program
- Level: Beginner
- Subjects Covered: SaaS tools, code, cloud, AI, SaaS sales terminology
Uvaro is a four-week full-time or 12-week part-time online tech sales bootcamp. Students learn the entire sales cycle, from prospecting and qualifying leads to the art of pitching to negotiation and closing the deal. They also learn common sales methodologies and SaaS tools.
Uvaro bootcamp students learn through online video discussions, offline assignments, and practice sessions. The course is not free, but you can pay tuition upon getting hired.
Key Takeaway: Uvaro’s tech sales bootcamp is available to anyone who is eligible for full-time work in the United States or Canada.
Online Sales Classes, Training, or Courses: Which Is the Right Option?
The terms classes, courses, and training can be hard to differentiate, as many people and even search engines use the words interchangeably. Courses are a series of classes that focus on theoretical learning, while training is a more hands-on and practical way to learn specific skills. What about classes? Well, a class is a one-off lesson, usually focusing on one crucial skill.
Where effective sales is concerned, the best learning option is a combination of a course and hands-on training, which gives you basic selling skills. Courses have in-depth theoretical information, while training will help you apply what you learn in real-life scenarios. A bootcamp is both a course and a training program, as it blends conceptual with practical learning.
How to Choose the Right Online Sales Course, Class, or Training Program
First Factor: Course Provider
When choosing a sales course, look at the provider’s experience, reputation, and structure. Longevity says a lot about their industry success, but you also want their experience to be specific to your needs.
Second Factor: Assessments
Assessments help learners gauge their grasp on the subjects and take the course seriously. This is especially important when taking online courses with no supervision or grading. It can also help the sales trainer to change their teaching approach to something more effective.
Third Factor: Coaching and Reinforcement
Effective sales training programs are followed up with quality coaching to solidify the newfound skills. The training provider should have resources to help students write outstanding resumes, do interviews, and close deals. These coaching sessions will help you transition from learning to working without any significant delays.
Fourth Factor: Flexibility
Many times, the person taking an online sales course has a job or is enrolled in another course. Therefore, choosing a flexible training course helps you take care of other responsibilities. If possible, the course should be self-paced, but evening and weekend classes are okay too.
Sales Course Certificates vs Certifications
A certificate is evidence that you have completed specialized education in a structured way. Certificates are recognized by most employers, and they can help you land a job or a promotion. However, a certificate is not the same thing as professional certification. Some fields like teaching, project management, and tech use professional certifications to ensure compliance with set industry standards.
Importance of Sales Certifications
Professional certification shows that you meet a certain standard of competence and can give you a competitive advantage and even a higher pay scale. The dedication it takes to attain a sales certification like CPSP shows employers that you are committed to excellence. It also gives you leadership status, which can get you into a sales management position.
Why You Should Take Online Sales Courses or Classes
Selling is the lifeblood of any business, and you can’t afford to ignore the skill. So whether you are looking to improve your own sales skills or run a sales organization or sales department, sales training courses are a cost-effective way to do this.
Online sales training programs come with many benefits, including low costs, time flexibility, easier logistics, and accessibility. The bottom line is that you should find a sales course that meets your learning needs, time, and budget.Additionally, it doesn’t hurt that the sales job market is growing and the demand for salespeople is on the rise. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) states that sales occupation salaries range from $25,020 to $108,830, depending on the job title. Gaining new sales skills will allow you to explore higher-paying career opportunities within the industry.
About us: Career Karma is a platform designed to help job seekers find, research, and connect with job training programs to advance their careers. Learn about the CK publication.
